AI SERP Shockwaves, Tariff‐Driven Cheap CPMs, and TikTok Shop Gold Rush

Weekly briefing for AI-first marketers. News, tactics, and tools that move the whole funnel.

Author

Rohit Maheswaran
May 07, 2025

Hey Full Funnel crew — happy Wednesday!  🎉

A lot shifted while you were sipping margaritas on Cinco de Mayo. Google’s new AI Overviews are cannibalizing organic clicks, Meta quietly juiced Advantage+ with fresh look‑alike mojo, and tariffs are bending ad prices in weird (but profitable) ways. Below is your one‑scroll briefing to turn those plot twists into pipeline. Let’s dig in.

On the menu  🍽️

  • Google’s AI Overviews: save your SEO before clicks evaporate

  • Meta + Tariffs = bargain CPMs (framework inside)

  • Hold on, that doesn’t add up! Why your attribution is lying (and how to fix it)

  • Next‑gen creative: Muse, Sponsored Lenses & AppLovin’s billion‑user playground

  • TikTok Shop shake‑up: time‑boxed land‑grab for early movers

  • Weekly AI tools that will save you hours every week

  • Vibe marketing workflow giveaway

The AI Attention Shift 📈

Google’s AI Overviews now appear on up to 30 % of U.S. queries, siphoning traffic overnight—so treat search like paid media.

🤔 What changed? Tests by publishers show 40‑70 % traffic drops on affected keywords days after the rollout.

🧐 Why it matters: If your brand relies on review or “best‑of” queries, clicks are now trapped inside Google’s answer box.

😀 Try this (30‑minute fix):

  1. Run a Search Console export → filter URLs losing impressions week‑over‑week.

  2. For each keyword, create a FAQ module answering it verbatim—Google may cite (and link) that section inside Overviews.

  3. Add a first‑party data hook (quiz, calculator) above the fold—treat SEO pages like mid‑funnel landing pages since dwell time > clicks now.

Profitable Marketing Amid Tariffs 💸

U.S. tariff whiplash sent average North‑American CPMs down 18 % in mid‑April as advertisers froze budgets—smart brands scaled.

Meta Advantage + 2025 playbook

Meta’s April update lets Advantage+ “audience suggestions” ingest 320 M additional first‑party signals, boosting new‑visitor share +16 % in early tests.

  1. Structure: Keep one broad ASC campaign, exclude only 180‑day purchasers.

  2. Creative mix: Rotate 50 / 50 video‑static; map messaging to five funnel stages.

  3. Bid: Auto‑bid; set a guardrail cost cap only on test ABOs.

  4. Scale window: As long as blended ROAS ≥ baseline‑5 %, push budget daily by 20 % - CPMs are artificially cheap while peers stay on the sidelines.

Cash‑flow guardrails

Pair the scale with a 13‑week rolling cash forecast (see last issue) and use Settle or Plastiq to float inventory 30‑60 days - negative cash conversion beats negative margins every time.

💰 Why Your Attribution is Lying (And How to Fix It)

Shocking stat: 73% of DTC brands misallocate budget because their attribution models ignore incrementality.

The Hidden Truth:

  • Meta shows: $3.21 ROAS

  • Actual Lift: $1.85 ROAS (when you isolate incrementality)

Why? Overlap effect. When Meta claims credit for conversions that would've happened anyway through:

  • Brand search

  • Organic social

  • Email sequences

3-Step Fix:

  1. Geo Testing: Design & deploy campaigns in test vs. control regions

  2. Holdout Analysis: Suppress ads to 10% of the audience, measure the difference

  3. Marketing Mix Modeling: Validate your MMM insights with experiment results

🔧 When measuring this at Lifesight, we've seen attribution accuracy improve by 42% when combining first-party data with causal modeling.

Quick Action: This week, test 1 channel with a 2-week holdout. Compare results to claimed attribution

Creative That Cuts Through Noise 🎨

Wayfair Muse AI images

Home‑goods giant now lets shoppers prompt “coastal dining room” and see AI‑generated shoppable rooms—browse → buy compression you can mimic with Vercel + GPT‑4o.

Snapchat Sponsored Lenses (Gen‑AI)

Snap’s May format auto‑builds immersive AR from a single product shot - early adopters report 25 % lift in swipe‑ups vs static Story ads. 

AppLovin: the quiet giant

Analysts call it “the next TikTok” after revenue jumped 44 % YoY and a billion gamers scroll its ad feed daily.

  • Tactic: Repurpose UGC vertical video; start with a $10 K test (AppLovin’s sweet spot).

  • Expectations: Lower CVR vs Meta, but CPCs hover near $0.85—cheap awareness hedge.

Takeaway: Diversify creative testing across AI‑native canvases while incumbents scramble for compliance sign‑off.

Brand Growth with Community 🤝

TikTok just laid off swaths of its U.S. commerce team as it refocuses around seller self‑service.

Opportunity window (Q2): Fewer reps means algorithmic privilege for early TikTok Shop adopters to seed UGC.

Framework:

  1. Ship 100 sample kits to nano‑creators (<20 K followers).

  2. Offer 40 % first‑order + 10 % lifetime commission—mirrors Obvi playbook but cheaper than Meta CAC.

  3. Pipe high‑performing videos into Meta whitelisting to compound reach.

Community note: Spotlight is the best creator in the weekly email; public recognition beats another $50 gift card.

AI Tools of the Week🤖

Proxima AI Audiences

Feed Meta smarter signals—watch CAC slide.

What it is:  A generative‑AI engine that builds privacy‑compliant, first‑party modeled audiences for Meta using your pixel + Shopify data.

Why it’s hot: Brands like Obvi report ‑12 % new‑customer CPA and +7 % NC‑ROAS after swapping out broad or stacked lookalikes for Proxima’s AI segments.
Learn more: Proxima’s AI Audiences overview & case studies.

Turn a 30‑minute webinar into 20 TikToks before lunch.

What it is: An AI repurposing studio that auto‑detects hooks inside webinars, podcasts, or UGC and spits out subtitle‑burned, platform‑native clips (9 × 16, 1 × 1, 16 × 9) in seconds.

Why it’s hot: Since adding “Magic Clips” in March 2025, Vizard usage has jumped 230 % and secured a $4 M seed round to expand its generative pipeline. Marketers highlight 70 % faster edit cycles and a 2‑3× lift in Reels reach versus manually cut footage. 

The Data Scientist in Your Pocket

What it is: Julius AI functions as an advanced AI data scientist that helps with marketing content research, audience analysis, progress reports, and data visualization. It can solve problems, analyze data, and provide detailed insights - all within seconds.

Why it’s hot: Marketing analytics, audience insights, and report generation that would normally require a data team.

Giveaway of the Week 🎁

AI Social Media Manager, put your social media post creation and scheduling completely on autopilot. Re-purpose from existing content bank or create fresh content on the fly and schedule directly into 100s of social handles across 15+ social platforms using 'Postiz'. Flat 35% OFF if you sign up in the next 48 hours, use code POSTIZMAY.

To receive the workflow, simply refer one friend to the Full Funnel newsletter!

See y’all next week  👋

Tariffs, AI SERPs, CPM slides—chaos is inevitable; compounding growth is optional. Pick one play above, run it this week, and let us know the lift. If you found value, forward to a friend who still thinks SEO == free traffic.

— Full Funnel Team